Messages for Mac is extremely useful when you need to continue conversation from iPhone and iPad. There is no problem when you receive message from single person. But when you’re conversing with several people at once, telling the senders apart requires more efforts.

By default, sender’s background color is set to Automatic. This setup will occasionally cause senders to have the same background color. The only helpful clue left to help your tell the senders apart is the contact photo. But if the senders are not in your contacts, you’ll need to read the name to figure out who is the sender.

Won’t it be better if each sender has different message background color?

Well it seems we can configure it. These options can be found in Messages » Preferences from menu bar. Set the sender’s background color to Random. The new setting will be applied to all existing conversation. You’ll be delighted to find each sender has their own distinctive background color. Beside background color, you can also set the font type and color.

It’s better to use different color for your own background. This can prevent same background color applied to both senders and receivers. Pick a different color using Other…. For first time color picker user, choose the third tab and change the color palette to Crayons which has more color choices.

Most of us have a friend with peculiar font preferences. To keep the messages received consistent, you can configure the sender’s font to avoid needless eye bleeding. I personally choose Lucida Grande 13 as my font on both Messages for Mac and Adium. Retina display users might prefer other font, but Lucida Grande 13 should work for most devices.

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